Sept. 2017 Jobs At Palladium Group

Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with foundations, investors, governments, corporations, communities and civil society to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental and financial benefits.

For the past 50 years, we have been making Positive Impact possible. With a team of more than 2,500 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of more than 35,000 technical experts, Palladium has improved – and is committed to continuing to improve – economies, societies and most importantly, people’s lives.

Palladium is a child-safe organization, and screens applicants for suitability to work with children. We also provide equal employment to all participants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran or marital status.

Job Description

Job Title: Technical Portfolio Manager

Project Overview and Role

Palladium is recruiting a Technical Portfolio Manager for the West Africa Food Markets Pilot Programme located in Accra, Ghana.

The Programme

The West Africa Food Markets Programme (WAFM) is a five-year DIFD-funded initiative implemented by the Palladium Group, leading a consortium including KPMG and Saana Consulting. WAFM aims for growth in supply of staple foods, particularly cereals, and in the purchasing power of farmers in food-insecure Sahelian countries, strengthening resilience against periodic food-deficit shocks and contributing to prosperity, stability and security. This is to be achieved via increased food production (yield increases and/or reduction in post-harvest losses) and cross-border trade along the Ghana-Burkina Faso and Niger-Nigeria trade corridors, thereby lowering seasonal price volatility in selected food markets. The programme is made up of two components, a Policy Facility and a Challenge Fund.
Challenge Fund (CF): The CF incentivises businesses to pilot and scale pro-poor innovative activities to increase staple food and cereals production, processing and marketing, targeting and facilitating cross-border trade. This focuses on production and trade in cassava, maize, millet and sorghum.
Policy Facility (PF): The PF supports interventions resulting in tangible gains in outreach, production and sales of smallholders, traders and processors via medium-term changes (attainable in 1-2 years) in policies, regulations, administrative directives and practices affecting the rules & institutions that promote cross-border trade in targeted cereals and associated processed food products and other products (HQCF, starch etc.)
This is a technical role and the ideal candidate for the role will be a senior technical expert, with expertise in both grants and portfolio management, analysis of quantitative data and reporting systems, financial and commercial analysis for agribusinesses and technical support to agribusinesses.

Responsibilities

The Technical Portfolio Manager will be guided by the following key responsibilities:
Technical assistance and reporting (60%)
Analysis of operational, financial, commercial and technical capacities and issues encountered by grantees
Identify gaps in grantees technical, operational and organisational capacities and provide recommendations to grantees on how to reinforce them
Identify market constraints faced by grantees (access to supply, markets, services, etc.), provide recommendations to address them and facilitate grantees linkages with relevant market actors and business service providers
Provide understanding of cash-flow problems and access to finance issues and identify avenues for cooperation and synergies between grantees, banks, financial institutions and investors to reinforce financial capacities of grantees
Provide understanding of threats to agricultural production (regional insecurity, food shortages, environmental and climate change issues, pests, etc.) and recommendations to grantees on how to mitigate them
Technical assistance and capacity building to CF grantees
With the Team Leader and grantees, identify key areas of technical support required over the course of the grant and resources required to deliver technical support
Ensure the technical liaison between grantees, Short-Term Technical Assistance pool and relevant local service providers to ensure the adequate delivery of TA in view of grantees? business and technical needs
Results verification and reporting
Ensure the effective monitoring and documentation of all grantee intervention outputs and outcomes, by working with grantees and MRM officer
Assist the MRM officer in liaising with grantees to verify their understanding of WAFM logframe indicators, data collection and reporting procedures
Complete required reporting to DFID on technical and financial progress of the CF, including summaries of CF progress in quarterly and annual reports
Knowledge and communication
Develop and disseminate knowledge and communication products around Challenge Fund and grantees? activities, business models and results ? including on the WAFM website
Promote learning and sharing of information amongst the WAFM team. Facilitate sessions to extract and distil lessons learned through CF grantees? activities.
Coordinate the collation and dissemination of all grantees progress reports and lessons learnt and contribute to the incorporation of said into the overall programme strategy.

Portfolio Management (40%)
Grant disbursement and management
Liaise with the Grants and Finance Officer to ensure timely disbursements of grantee payments
Review of all contracting documentation to ensure they meet WAFM, Palladium and DFID requirements
Review of the Grant Agreements between Palladium and grantee and ensure relevant special conditions are sufficient to ensure all elements of the grant management are well covered
Grant monitoring
Take lead responsibility for monitoring and evaluating grantee progress (including two site visits per year per grantee)
Monitor projects and grants and advise Team Leader on measures necessary, to reduce and manage risk in the Portfolio
Jointly with the Grants and Finance Officer request progress reports (technical and financial) from grantees and avail the necessary templates for their completion
Check grantee reports and ensure that they are compliant with set policies and procedures. Ensure accurate and timely reporting and accounting for grants
Review of grantees? performance against implementation plans
Review, analyse and assess grantee performance against KPI as per funding agreement
Review of draft letters to grantees highlighting key concerns on project performance
Follow up on feedback sent to the grantee to ensure issues raised have been addressed by the grantee
Management of overall relationship with grantees
Review of contract addendums prepared as required throughout the project duration
Communicate effectively with grantees at all times
Stimulate cooperation and synergies between grantees, banks, financial institutions and investors

Requirements

Skills and desired competencies

Strong competencies in analysis, data management, finance and administration, business processes, agribusiness and agribusiness financing, grant making processes and project delivery mechanisms.
Good business acumen and strong competencies in commercial and financial analysis in the agribusiness sector
Advanced skills in writing, presentation, ICT, word processing, excel spreadsheets, and verbal communication
Demonstrated ability to work with private sector players and provide technical assistance in the agricultural sector (financial institutions, exporters, buyers, traders, transporters, input suppliers or processors)Knowledge of agricultural finance and the financial sector and institutions in West Africa

Qualification

Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, agricultural economics or related field
An established track record and interest in finance, accounting, cash flow projections and its analysis
Excellent abilities in the use of ICTs, data analysis, and reporting
Demonstrated ability to take initiative and work independently with limited supervision
Excellent writing, communication, and documentation skills
Proficient in both written and spoken French and English
A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional work experience in Portfolio Management, including pre and post award management, financial analysis, budgeting and grants management